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There is no before, there is no after, 1996 saw the only and greatest free prize to be ever included in a cereal box:

CHEX QUEST

What is this thing you say, how could this be good? and Ultimate Doom mod with a cereal theme?! so fun and entertaining that both young and old can enjoy. And it doesn't stop there, oh no, not only there was a 1st Chapter for this game made, a 2nd and now glorious 3rd chapter has been released and all included in a single FREE DOWNLOAD!!! All thanks to the efforts of the original creator of this project: Charles Jacobi. If you even have the slightest interest on fun, funny and excellently crafted games, you owe it to yourself to try this out.

Want more proof of its quality, Oh ye of little faith!

Now try it yourself: Chex Quest Trilogy Download

The Flemoids are up to their sticky no good ways again, it is time to send them back to their dimension with your powerful Zorcher weapon arsenal.

EAT SPORK YOU SLIME!!!

Foreword, this is a somewhat large blog post, but please have in mind that this is a synopsis of 2 back to back conferences that lasted 3 hours in total, I tried to include everything of importance yet keep it as concise as possible.

Nintendo delivers a soporific Press Event.

I knew things where not going to go well the moment Cammie Dunaway stepped into the stage, and unfortunately I was not mistaken. Yet again Nintendo has offered to the gaming press a event that garnered the most resounding indifference an overall general apathy this side of a goldfish funeral. Let me make a quick sinopsis of the first 5 minutes of the conference:

BLAH! BLAH! BLAH! BLAH! BLAH!

There... now lets get down to the actual facts, read this and save yourself the trouble of watching the recorded conference if you haven't watch it yet, you'll thank me later.

- New Super Mario Bros. Wii, claiming that it'll introduce a 4th dimension in gaming. No, no, don't get to exited there is no time manipulation or anything like that, they only meant playing a 2D sidescrolling Mario game with 4 players ... that's it (it is worth mentioning that Cammie died 5 seconds into the demo) ... moving on.

- Wii Fit Plus, more excersices, custom body training and more minigames, problem is that it is not a downloadable update to Wii Fit, OH no, it is a whole new game that you have to buy separately! Then why the hell call it "Plus".

- Regis Fils Aime steps into the stage to show us AGAIN Wii Motion Plus, the little Wiimote penile extension. Some promotional videos start playing and the title "Wii Sports Resort" flashes on screen and the crowd goes chirping grasshopper and tumbleweed after it. We get to see some live demo of the game at work showcasing Skydiving, Archery and Hoops. Regis makes a few jokes that fall flat and we move on.

- 3rd Party games that will use the Wii Motion Plus include Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10, Grand Slam Tennis, Virtua Tennis 2009 and Regis emphasizes how now "every mistake we make" will be translated into the game. Yeah, that is exactly what every gamer wants Reg, very reassuring.

- Square Enix will also make an RPG with the Wii Motion Plus in mind; Final Fantasy Crystal Bearers which showcased some gunplay on it but nothing much was remarkable.

- DS gets more RPGs as well: FF Kingdom Hearts 358/2 90210 Days, Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (The Proctologist Chronicles) and the welcomed announcement of Golden Sun DS.

- Grab on to you breechers ladies because here comes two amazing titles for you, first: "James Patterson's Women's Murder Club: Games of Passion" which earns the award for longest, tackiest name ever for a game, be amazed by its static slide show visuals and low budget production values. But wait there is more, here comes Fashion Savvy which with its fashion boutique, catwalk fashion design play mechanics, your fight for women's equality will be set back 30 years into the past!

- Another DS game presented was C.O.P. The Recruit, think of it as a sort of Dead to Rights but downgraded for DS.

- Cammie goes on into how user generated content has become an essential part of gaming and introduces various DSi applications that center around it:

- Flip Note Studio, which is a small gif animation application.

- Mario & Donkey Kong: Minis March Again! with level editor and download only for DSi.

- Facebook integration to upload photos taken and edited with the DSi. Oh joy! bask in the glory of crudely modified 640 x 480 images.

- The Legend of Zelda Spirits Tracks is mentioned, yes mentioned, nothing new is shown of this title, not even screen shots just a still art concept image. I guess they figured most people saw the game already on the web.

- Next, Nintendo's President Satoru "Bore You To Tears" Iwata starts spouting a bunch of powerpoint data that nobody cares about and announces the "Wii Vitality Sensor" which is yet another piece of plastic Nintendo wants to peddle and attach to the Wiimote. Basically a heart rate monitor and, get this, he actually said that he would like to see developers create games to help people relax and fall asleep!?!? No need for that Mr, Iwata, that is what Nintendo Press Conferences are for!!! Do us a favor, hire someone else to speak on your behalf next time.

- Super Mario Galaxy 2 is announced (finally some cheering is heard from the public) it looks just like the original Galaxy but Yoshi is now in the game, able to perform special moves while riden by Mario.

- The other hardcore offer from 3rd parties that is presented are The Conduit (an FPS nobody would care about it it were a 360 or PS3 game), Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles and Dead Space:Extraction, both light gun shooters.

- And finally a title that surprised and pleased the public and speaks volumes about how Nintendo needs to ask for outside developers to handle one of their flagship franchises because, apparently, they are unable to do so. The torch has been passed from Retro Studios to none other than Tecmo's Team Ninja. Metroid: Other M now becomes an Action Adventure game that cannot be better described as a Metroid Ninja Gaiden and there will be a emphasis on Samus personality and back story. Very cool, but still, it feels like too little a bone thrown at hardcore gamers to chew on.

Final Verdict: Nintendo has become utterly complacent with their position as the market leaders, they are making money hand over fist selling casual games to the casual crowd with very little effort or investment on their behalf. There is very little incentive to cater to the hardcore crowd, which is a minority on Wii and as such hardcore game offerings become a minority as well. The Wii has not dropped in price since launch and it won't drop price this year either, worst, Nintendo's plans consist on selling even more peripherals to plug into the Wii, disregarding the cost this will incur into their users and how it will fragment the user base. The Wii is not a priority, indeed there are hardcore games for it that would make me buy one but its price doesn't reflect the technology it harbors, nor the quality of its overall catalog. Nintendo's Wii just dropped to the bottom of my list after Microsoft's stellar showing. The fact that even Cammie Dunaway failed to display any sort of excitement as she spoke was a somber, disheartening display.

Sony's Reassuring Surprise.

You got to give credit to Sony, they know how to pump up a crowd even before the show starts. Opening with a video montage of the different games that will be available on PSP and PS3 at the chords and singing voice of Freddie Mercury's "One World, One Vision" the public was already cheering when Jack Trenton stepped into the stage. He did not passed up the chance and greeted the public with a "thanks for showing up" remark Which was replied with a sincere laughter from the public. After Nintendo previous conference, you could notice people wanted to be entertained. There was a little numbers facts exposure but pretty much Trenton got into the meat of the conference:

- Highlighted the fact that Sony is the only hardware holder with 3 successful systems on the market.

- Spoke briefly about PS2's $99 price and 100 new titles it would have this year.

- Uncharted 2: Among Thieves was shown live, showing great animation, visuals, destructible environments, cover system and action sequences worthy of any of the best Hollywood flicks.

- MAG was also shown live with 256 players running at once. Also showed that the Squad Leaders and Field Commanders had special options relevant to their status of leaders.

- New PSP bundles were announced including Rock Band, Final Fantasy Dissidia, Assasins' Creed: Bloodlines and Hannah Montana.

- Kaz Hirai showed "E3's Worst Kept Secret" the PSP Go! 50% smaller and 40% lighter than the PSP-3000. Plus new media applications to manage files between the PC and the PSP and "Sense Me Music" which creates a personalized music selection according to the user preferenses and mood. The launch price of the PSP Go! will be $249, maybe a bit more than I expected but it is a complete hardware overhaul after all.

- A revamped video delivery service will include new content for PlayStation Network and now also available for PSP.

- After being first announced with the original launch of the PSP five years ago,(you sure took your time there Polyphony, but at least you didn't pull 3D Realms on us.) Gran Turismo finally reaches the PSP with 800 cars, 35 tracks with 60 variations of each plus the possibility of unlocking the cars with the help of other players. (Was it just me or Mr. Yazunori looked sick? He really did look uncomfortable standing on that stage.)

- Kojima is all over the place, now announcing a true sequel for MGS3, now on PSP called Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, set on the 1970's as the original Big Boss, but now with the possibility of play a co-op campaign with other player controlled clones of Big Boss.

- A first time appearance of the Resident Evil series is announced for PSP

- A quick succession of videos promote the arrival of more franchises for the PSP as well: Little Big Planet, Jak & Daxter, MotorStorm, Dissidia, Socom, Monster Hunter, SoulCalibur, Persona among others.

- PlayStation Network will have available 50 PlayStation 1 c l a s s i c s, Final Fantasy VII included.

- Home gets more content (and has proven to be a very profitable endeavour for Sony thanks to microtransactions.)

- Trenton announces a new franchise that will be exclusive for PS3 : RockStar`s Agent which will be a espionage thriller game.

- Ubisoft presents a live demo of Assassin's Creed II showcasing new tools, skills and methods of assassination and the game will interface with PSP's version of Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines.

- Final Fantasy XIII is shown once more but immediately Trenton wows the public announcing the exclusive rights and a first time ever CG video of Final Fantasy XIV Online. This represents Square Enix's second foray into the MMO realm after FFXI. While I believe this game will remain exclusive for PS3, it will probably be a time exclusive, expect this game to appear on PC as well later on.

- 2 Sony engineers show the crowd a demo of a new prototype of motion controller that use the PlayStation Eye to achieve true 3D space positioning and 1:1 movement that is accurate to the "sub millimeter" level. The technology is similar to what the Wii Motion Plus offers but far more accurate and it uses the camera to interact with the world in a similar way as Project Natal. But it requires the controllers because as one of the engineers say "sometimes you just need buttons for some things" the demo was very surprising and raised some excited reactions from the public.

- Sackboy costumes based on Disney properties were shown, Jack Sparrow as an example.

- Modnation Racer is shown, the developers behind it want of it to become the best kart racer game ever made. It offers deep character and car customization plus easy on the fly track creation. During the demo a whole track full of scenery, buildings, props, power ups and track surfaces was created within just 5 minutes.

- Team ICO's The Last Guardian is finally shown an it looked very similar to the video leaked prior to the E3 event but it was more polished. The interaction between a boy and a giant gryphon like creature seemed to drive the main mechanics of the game for exploration and combat.

- GT5 is shown in video form and now it will include the World Rally Championship and NASCAR licensed racing modes as part of the game.

- And as a closing for the conference, a live demo of God of War 3 is shown, Kratos now featuring the new move sets and weapons of the previous trailers. The brutality of the gameplay is back in a big way as Kratos finishes by disembowelment a Centaur and fights a Chimera that takes apart piece by piece as the battle progresses, all the while a Titan rampages on the background.

Final Verdict: Sony showed that the hardcore gamer has a place that it can call home, (no pun intended) while there was a few moments on the conference that were dedicated to show numbers, these were few and far between. Sony dedicated nearly exclusively everything they showed to the core gamer. The conference while not as far reaching as Microsoft in terms of broad appeal, it showed a rock solid lineup and some true surprise announcements. Most importantly, they confirmed their full support to all the PlayStation brand products, showcasing one of the strongest pushes ever on the PSP, making it a worthwhile alternative to Nintendo's handheld and pushing the message "only possible on PS3" as their new mantra for their home console.

My rating of all the the conferences:

Microsoft: A+ (Wide appealing, full of multimedia offers, strong lineup, new future gameplay possibilities)
Nintendo: C (Lack of enough new announcements, scant hardcore offerings, technology is showing its age.)
Sony: B+ (Hardcore centric, solid lineup, strong exclusives and new franchise announcements)